RESEARCH METHODS IN CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE. Professor Callie Marie Rennison Office: 500 LSC CRJU 5003

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1 RESEARCH METHODS IN CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE Professor Callie Marie Rennison Office: 500 LSC CRJU Classroom: online Office Hours: By appointment Weeks open/close Friday at 4pm COURSE DESCRIPTION/OBJECTIVES This course reviews/introduces methods for research design and data collection in criminology and criminal justice. Topics covered are intended to enhance student's abilities to be sound consumers of research, and to provide students with the tools needed to successfully conduct basic research in the areas of crime and justice. It introduces students to the methods used to conduct criminological and criminal justice research, exposes them to some classic research, and instructs them how to read and think critically research monographs. REQUIRED TEXTS 1. Bachman, Ronet & Schutt, Russell K. The Practice of Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice. 2. Wright, Richard & Decker, Scott. Armed Robbers in Action. 3. Best, Joel. Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists - Updated edition. 4. Venkatesh, Sudhir. Gang leader for a day: A rogue sociologist takes to the streets. RECOMMENDED READINGS Patten, Mildred L. (2005). Proposing Empirical Research: A Guide to the Fundamentals. Pyrczak Publishing. Pyrczak, Fred & Bruce, Randall, R. (2007). Writing Empirical Research Reports: A Basic Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 6 th ed. Pyrczak Publishing. Kirkpatrick, Lee and Brooke Feeney A Simple Guide to SPSS for Windows. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Gravetter, Frederick J. & Wallnau, Larry B. (2012). Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. 7th edition. Thomson/Wadsworth Publishing. Ninth Edition.

2 Patten, Mildred L. (1998) Questionnaire Research: A Practical Guide. Pyrczak Publishing. Additional readings will be required and will be available on Ecollege COURSE REQUIREMENTS Grading -Your final grade is based on three equally weighted components. The first one-third of your grades comes from the average of all your quiz grades. The second third of your grade comes from the average of all weekly paper grades. There are some weeks in which papers will not be due, still, we refer to these as weekly papers. And the remaining one-third of your grade comes from your score on a major research paper. 1. Quizzes 33% 2. +/-Weekly Papers 33% 3. Research Paper 33% TOTAL 100% 1. Weekly Quizzes. Most weeks of the semester culminate with a quiz. The number of questions on each quiz varies. At times there are five questions; at other times there are 20 or more questions. And for some weeks, there is no quiz. Please keep in mind that this is a graduate level course and these quizzes are not easy. They are designed to test your understanding of the material. If you have a question about something you missed on the quiz, contact me. 2. Papers. You are required to turn in papers many/most weeks of the semester. These papers focus on the material covered during that week and are designed to demonstrate your comprehension of the material, and your ability to apply it to the task put forth. Do not make the mistake of thinking these are papers you can slap together in minutes before the closing of the week and receive a decent grade. I expect them to reflect the work of a graduate level student and be very polished. All papers MUST be typed, double-spaced, 12 point font, with standard margins. Please put your name on your paper. All papers must adhere to APA style (see Failure to use APA will result me not reading the paper and awarding a zero. Your capstone and requires APA and all work in this class does too. In addition, please note that I never accept late papers. No exceptions. Papers must be turned in using Microsoft Word no pdfs will be accepted. A paper turned in using some other format will also be awarded a zero. 3. Research Paper. The final third of your course grades comes from a research paper. The class material (text, online lecture, and other online resources) and two books are to be used for your research paper. The two books are: a. Venkatesh, Sudhir Gang leader for a day: A rogue sociologist takes to the streets. Penguin Publishing: New York:NY.

3 b. Wright, Richard & Scott Decker. (1997). Armed Robbers in Action. Northeastern University Press. Your overall task is to apply your newly acquired methodological and critical thinking skills to assess these books. You will in general (1) summarize each book, (2) identify (in detail) the methodology used in each book. Be sure to be complete by describing the methodology, why it's useful in these situations, advantages and disadvantages of each, etc. (3) Critique the methodology used in each book, (4) provide your thoughts as to how this book can be improved from a methodological perspective, and finally (5) write a methods section of a new piece of research you wish to undertake that would address limitations in one of the two books. Your proposed research should be fully developed and I should be able to answer all questions from the "Reading Advice Document" posted from this class. To do this paper well, you will need to use information gleaned throughout the semester. Please note, any plagiarism will result in a "0" for this paper which in essence means an "F" for the class. Being caught plagiarizing means I will NOT sign a drop form to allow you to escape your poor decision, your name and paper will be forwarded to university authorities. Zero tolerance on this. Best course of action is to do your own work. Given this is a graduate school paper, the turned-in product needs to demonstrate graduate level work. It is required that your paper properly reference articles, research and statistics we go over in class (as well as other courses you are or have taken) to support your thoughts in this paper. This paper will require you to bring in outside resources as well. Wikipedia is NOT an appropriate source. Be sure to cite appropriately. Use APA format. Failure to use APA format will result in THE AWARDING OF A ZERO FOR YOUR PAPER. Use 12 point font and double space the paper. Papers must be in WORD document format. How long is the paper? Some people may use 40 pages to write an excellent paper. Others may be able to do a great job with 25 pages. An outsider who is ignorant of research methodology should be able to walk away from having read your paper with a great review of the books, with a great understanding of the methodology used in the books, and of your opinion/thoughts about the methodology backed up by research/literature/statistics of the several questions of interest. These imaginary readers should also understand clearly what you propose to do, why it is important, how you will do it and why it is a superior approach. There is no one here who can write a good graduate level paper for this assignment that is less than 25 pages. I repeat, if your paper is less than 25 pages, you are probably turning in a poor or failing paper. If so, you will be graded accordingly. Your paper should include several important sections (see books on writing empirical research reports such as the one in recommended readings list), just as any graduate level research paper should. These include (but are not necessarily limited to): a. Introduction. What is the purpose of your paper? Why is your paper important? It is required that you describe a road map of the remaining portion of your research paper. The Introduction should include a road map for the reader. In other words, tell them how the paper is

4 constructed. What sections follow? A quick example of a very basic (inadequate for your paper) follows: **The purpose of this paper is XXXXX. This is an important topic to consider because blah blah blah. In order to address this topic, I will first offer a summary of the book Gang Leader for a Day. In this summary, I give special attention to x, y and z components of the book especially as they relate to methodology utilized. Following the summary, I will address several important questions. The first question I will address is blah blah blah. I will use published research, information from the text, and statistics to support my argument. The second question etc. Following these questions, I offer my concluding thoughts on the topic. This includes a discussion of policy implications drawn from this work.** b. Complete and extensive summary of the books in your own words. Answer all of the "reading advice" questions and more in this portion of your paper. This includes #3 below: c. In depth analysis of the methodology used by the authors. What was the research question(s)? What approaches were used? What are the advantages/disadvantages of this approach? Why was that approach used by the authors? What other options did they have available but did not use? Why do you think they did not use the other options? What concepts were the authors interested in exploring? How were they operationalized? As no research is perfect, you need to describe how (using material you learned from this class) the authors could have done their research better? How would you have approached it and how would that approach enhance the work? Did the authors fail to address a relevant topic in their research? If so what and why would it have been important to cover that topic? d. In this section, you need to propose your new research. This includes answering all the questions found in the 'reading advice' document. One of the reasons you'll be proposing this research is due to a gap you uncovered in one of the books you read. Tell me explicitly and in great detail about your project. You will also need to tell me why your proposal is better than the existing books. What advantages does your work offer? Saying you would do nothing else or anything differently is not an option. e. Summary. Your paper must include the standard research paper summary. OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION Course Grade Scale - I use the UCD 100 point grading scale in this course. Please note that as a graduate student, it is YOUR responsibility to understand what constitutes a passing grade in this required core graduate school course B C D+ 59 or less F 93+ A B C D A B C D-

5 Extra Credit - There is no extra credit in this graduate school class. Please do not ask for any. Missing quizzes - Because of the nature of online courses and the way weeks open and close, you cannot make up a missed quiz. If you fail to take a quiz while the week is open, you will be awarded a zero for that week. Contacting me - If you need to contact me, use the provided in Ecollege. This offers the fastest response time. Poor choices are to contact me in the midst of a thread or over the telephone as my response time will be slower. Need Help? The research/teaching assistant assigned for this class is Meghan Hambacher. You can reach her through Ecollege or using her UCD meghan.hambacher@ucdenver.edu. Dropping the Course - Please refer to University requirements regarding drop days and policies. If you are on the class roll at the end of the semester, you will be given a grade. This means that if you stop attending at week 3 (or any other week) and fail to drop the course, you will be awarded the letter grade you earn (likely and F). You are responsible for dropping yourself. Academic Honesty - Cheating/Plagiarism is simply not tolerated. If you have questions about what plagiarism does and does not constitute, please see me and we can discuss it. It is better to ask and be certain than it is to suffer the severe consequences of this activity. Should an assignment be plagiarized, you will be awarded a zero for that assignment, and you will be referred to the appropriate University authorities. Zero exceptions and zero tolerance of unethical behavior from students. Respect in Communication - An integral part of university education is the exchange of ideas and mutual respect. As educated critical thinkers and problem solvers, faculty, staff, and students are expected to treat each other with respect and dignity. This includes being respectful in communication in person, but also communication using , Ecollege and on the phone. See: for more about the tendency to be disrespectful online and in other ways. Disrespectful communication will not be tolerated.

6 OVERALL PHILOSOPHY "Life is like a monkey, it just keeps flinging poo at you." The trick is to keep going even when you ve been hit. I am a stickler regarding personal responsibility. I will not hound you for assignments, nor will I remind you of things for which you are responsible. I do not "give out" grades - you earn them. I don t review for exams that is what the entire semester is all about. This means that when a grade is earned by you, I will not change it.